A Curious Statistical Anomaly

Nebraska: big, green, flat, and more windmills and cows than Iowa and Ohio.

Today is/was our last day on the road until we head back home on Sunday. We got into Denver about 4PM. The hotel lobby was standing room only with people from three conventions checking in at once. We managed to get our room and find it. We’re in the Tower so you have to go down to the concourse level and then under and around and through and find the elevators for the tower — finally, we’re in our room.

The convention center is a short walk away — except it was raining slightly; but it felt so good after the hot stuffy weather of the day. The convention center has a huge Blue Bear looking into it’s front windows. Hyperion and I collect bears so this just made us giggle (yes, it was a giggle not a guffaw or laugh — it was a pure joy giggle, I think I’m going to like Denver even more than I previously thought — they have a sense of whimsy here.)

It is now 5:31 and we need to get to the convention registration in the Convention Center, get our badges and get to Opening Ceremonies. We didn’t make it. We got our registration stuff but got to Opening Ceremonies just as they ended. But we did get to the Baryaran Summerfaire, a get to know the authors and fans get-together after Opening Ceremonies. There were some wonderful costumes being worn and we got some photos. Managed to catch up with friends and acquaintances.

We decided to call it a night. Okay, so it was only about 7:30 by then. It’s been a long day (and our bodies are still on Eastern Time, which makes it 9:30). Tomorrow we plan to attend the business meeting and then panels and whatever we can fit in. Hopefully, we’ll update throughout the day but at least at the end of each day.

What can I add? Hmmm. I’m not as young as I once was, that’s for sure. I’ve been drinking caffeinated sodas all day long so that I could keep moving. Now my nerves are all fried. Youth is wasted on the young.

Important things learned in the last 24 hours: Be careful how you hold the car remote when you’re trying to unpack the car at a motel around midnight. Otherwise what you think is the trunk release might just be the panic button. Now, I’m not saying that this actually happened, and you can’t prove otherwise! Also make sure you wear shoes with at least a little bit of tread left on them. When it rains, fancy paving stones start acting a lot like ice.

It’s good to finally be here. There looks to be a lot of great talks over the next couple of days on a variety of science topics. So, with any luck, I’ll have more fodder to foist off on you as the week progresses.

Shortly after posting last night, we pulled in at a rest stop, got one of the coupon books and found a el-cheapo motel (motel 6: It has a locked door and horizontal, slightly padded surface. What more do you need?).  We got about seven hours of sleep and now we’re back on road and making good time.  We stopped for coffee (of course), and other than that we’ve just been driving and driving.  As of now (about 11:00am) we’re just through Toledo and heading for the Indiana border.  Mother Nature seems to have a few plans of her own though.  There’s a big “weather system” just southwest of us and heading towards us.  If we’re lucky, we’ll just skim over the north edge.

Just as a special mention to one of our readers (and you know who you are!), we’re passing 40 miles south of Kalamazoo on Highway 80.  And Mother Nature never did manage to get that “weather system” anywhere near us.  Take that, M.N.

We’ve been playing with our Satellite radio.  We’ve listened to Latin, which is naturally in spanish, which we don’t understand, but at least it has a rhythm, actual music, and words I’d be able to understand, if only I spoke the language.  Question: When did performers decide they didn’t need to enunciate anymore? As Whoopi said in Jumping Jack Flash: Mick, Mick! Speak english Mick!   I’m so sick of “mumble, mumble, curse word, slur, mumble.”  Yeah, yeah, get off my lawn you damn kids!  I know I’m old, I don’t care.

It’s now later (about 5pm).  We’ve been driving and driving, but there’s nothing much that’s exciting to write about.  The only exception would be the bright yellow crop duster we came across.  It zipped and wheeled across the sky, spraying here, spraying there.  And it was a very pretty plane to.  I’d include a picture except: Gayle’s camera is in her purse, which she can’t get to as long as she’s driving.  I can get to my camera easily, but the battery is still in the charger, which is stuffed into the electronics bag in the trunk.  Next stop we’ll rectify that small mistake.

Okay, it’s a bit later in the day.  The camera is by my side, and I’ve even taken a couple of pictures, which I’ve scattered throughout this post.  You might be wondering why Gayle is letting me do these posts.  Wow! That’s a great question.  Thanks for asking.  It’s nice that people pay so much attention here.  Anyway, the simple, unvarnished truth is that Gayle is doing the majority of the driving.  And, superwoman that she is, she finds it a bit difficult to type and stay in her designated lane at the same time.   Why am I not driving?  Man, that’s two great questions in a row.  You people are the greatest!  The reason I’m not driving is because every time I take over (and I have done a fair amount, don’t get me wrong), I start dozing off at the wheel.  No matter how bright the sun is.  And Gayle, rightfully terrified for her very life, has decided that maybe me driving isn’t such a great idea at the moment.  The strange thing is, once I’m in the passenger seat, I perk right up and become a veritable bright-eyed and bushy tailed … well, not squirrel, that would just weird for someone with a cat motif to claim.  And we wouldn’t want that!   But that, in a nutshell (there we go with the rodent stuff again, I just can’t win), is the reason I’m typing this rambling, incoherent missive.  Where are we?  I haven’t got a clue, let me wait for a sign to go by.    …. [time passing] … oh, there we go.  We’re one hour east of Des Moines, Ohio.  We’ve been dodging the weather all day, and our luck is holding so far.  Des Moines just got hit by some heavy rain, but the system broke up and vanished before it could come as far east as we are.  Oh, speaking of strange laws (we weren’t but just play along), did you know that Illinois and Iowa allow you to go 70 mph?

Hey, guess what this is:

That’s right, it’s the mighty Mississippi.  We were driving along and saw this little blue bridge in the distance.  We weren’t thinking that much about it until we came to the sign just before the bridge that tells you what river you’re about to cross.  We got really excited, in that pathetic, geeky way some people do.

And another thing; here we are, driving through the heartland (or maybe, the liverland, since we’re a bit north of center), and we haven’t seen a single windmill anywhere.  Lots and lots of farms, lots of corn fields, silos, cell phone repeater towers, and even a cow or two.  But not one single, solitary, windmill.  Hollywood promised us windmills.  Could Hollywood have lied to us?  They can’t have.  All the movies about the central US have windmills.   The people of Iowa must be hiding them from us.  Maybe painted plaid and hidden behind a somebody-elses-problem field.  Yeah, that makes a lot more sense.  I’m glad we figured that one out.  On the other hand, they do have some nice rest stops with very pleasant picnic areas.

And you know how traveling America is suppose to be such a broadening experience?  You travel the highways and byways and see all kinds of true American Culture.  Here’s a great example of one we didn’t stop at.  It’s unlike others we didn’t stop at only in that we had absolutely no inclination to stop whatsoever.

Just to be annoying, we finally found windmills, but only within about 15 miles of the Nebraska border.  Iowa just had to be contrary.  After this thrilling find, we zoomed through Omaha and Lincoln and finally pulled off at a Comfort Inn.  It’s only about $10 a night more than the Motel 6, but it 3 times larger and has a refrigerator and a microwave.  Which would be good to reheat some of the cold food we packed in the freezer bag.  Only problem is that the freezer bag is still in the car because we didn’t think we’d need it.  I could just go out and get it, it’s not that far away.  The problem is that every time you lock the car, the horn beeps.  And, as with most hotels of this kind, we’re pulled up in a space right in front of someones room.  And I accidentally hit the panic button instead of the open trunk button.  So after the panic, plus normally locking the car twice, I really don’t want to subject the poor people in that room to even one more beep.  It’s nearly midnight now.  So, it’s going to be a cold sandwich for dinner, finish off this post and then hit the sack.  We’ll be up at 7:30 tomorrow morning to complete the journey.  The guy at the front desk says it shouldn’t take more than six hours to get to Denver.  That pretty much agrees with my estimates, so I’m inclined to believe him.

More tomorrow!

Last night was the 1st Friday WSFA meeting in Virginia. It was the usual business meeting followed by some socializing. Charles Stross was in DC and came to the meeting. His book, Halting State, is a 2008 Hugo Nominee. If you enjoy hard science, science fiction take a minute to read the review on the link and get the book and read it.

Today, it was back to Virginia for a meeting of the Capclave 2008 committee. This year’s guests of honor are James Morrow and Michael Dirda. Last year’s convention was a lot of fun as well as informative. This year’s convention is shaping up to be just as good. We’re working on putting together a great schedule of program items as well as some workshops (check last years program, we’ll probably have similar ones this year — but keep an eye on the official website). If you have never been to a local science fiction convention and you live in the Washington, DC area consider joining us for Capclave 2008.

Then it was time to run all our weekend errands in what was left of the day. Why is it that during the week, you think well we can do x, y, z, a, b, …. w this weekend. Then the weekend comes and all the stuff you can’t do because of work has to be done as well as any other plans that require two people to do and before you know it, it’s midnight on Saturday and you only have one more day of the weekend left and 40 billion things to do.

I seem to remember that when I was young there was talk of having a 4 or even a 3 day work week by the year 2000. Here we are in 2008 and most Americans are working 50 hour weeks with less vacation time than ever before as employers cut back on benefits. And to top it all off, weekends become the time to do all the things that should have been done during the week, but work wouldn’t allow time to do — food shopping, housework, laundry, household chores. I work at home and I still can’t keep up — maybe it’s a leak in my hours. I’m sure time is slipping away when I don’t look. Just last week it was January and today it’s April… I think Einstein and I need to have a talk about this relativity thing.

Got up very early — got to the convention (very early for us) — saw stuff. Then drove home — 10 1/2 hour drive. I’m bushed. Will re-edit this post and finish Sunday’s report tomorrow.

Continued:

Well Monday turned out to be Wednesday but here’s the rest of my report.  When we arrived on Sunday, we met some people and chatted and then got to the 10AM panel on What Are the Taboos in Fantasy Today? Panelists: John Grant, Tom Doherty, Sharyn November (moderator), Lucienne Diver, and Steven Erikson.  Description: They shift with the times. Is the writer ever really free to write about ANYTHING?

Basically, the panel agreed that if the story is strong enough just about anything goes even though if a taboo is broken it means reduced sales and limited markets. Bestiality seemed to be the  big taboo of today — however, there has been at least one YA book published with bestiality in it. One of the panel members had turned down the book but it was published elsewhere. Some things that weren’t taboo in the past are taboo now (smoking was one that was mentioned).  Explicit sex is out — panel preferred a shirt on the back of the chair and it’s morning to descriptive narratives (because they’re very difficult to write and they don’t want to read them).  One interesting point on bestiality was that if the characters are werewolves they can have sex in human form but not as wolves or one wolf/one human. While the panel could understand the human/wolf taboo — the wolf/wolf taboo didn’t make sense to some or to some of the audience either.

The last panel that we went to was Urban Fantasy–Beyond the Usual Suspects. Panelists: Jenna Black, Marie Brennan, Ernest Lilley (moderator), Ekaterina Sedia, and Melanie Fletcher. Descripton: It seems as if most urban fantasy uses the familiar European myths. What other possibilities are there? Which authors have successfully exploited them?

This panel certainly got a lot of emotional steam going once they got to cultural appropriation or using myths and icons of a culture not your own as a basis for a story/novel.  It’s at this point that while they understood the need to be sensitive to the members of a culture and that most of the myths and icons of one culture show up in others under different names and couldn’t they be used without harming the culture since it existed in my culture too but under another name?  (If that didn’t quite make sense but you got the gist that would explain why after 50 minutes there was still a lot to be said and no one agreed totally on rules that would indicate when you could or couldn’t use bits of a culture not your own in a story.   Quite an interesting conversation and I’m sure anyone could recreate the conversation with their own friends just by listing the discussion descripition and adding the phrase “Cultural Appropriation”.

We didn’t attend the banquet where the World Fantasy Awards were handed out but there is a list of the winners on SFRevu in the News Column.

I’m beginning to think I just don’t get mornings. It was another late start — even later than yesterday. Anyway, we finally reached the convention center only to realize that I forgot my tags back at the hotel. It seems I took them off and put them in plain sight on the desk but in the course of moving things last night they got covered by my sweater-in-progress so in the morning rush I didn’t see them and totally forgot. So, sitting down to knit on my socks — my wonderful husband got me a cup of coffee (I think he figured me awake was better than me in a coma) and then drove back to the hotel to get my tags. While knitting I spoke to some people who also were in search for coffee (the con suite had coffee still). Also, discussed the writings of Charles de Lint with some people who’d just bought a copy of Little Girl Lost in the dealers’ room. Several of us sitting about started listing our favorite novels and stories and our sadness that he hadn’t made it to World Fantasy this year. Paul got back with my tags and off we went to panels.

First up was The Victorian Era as Setting. Panelists: Tiffany Trent (moderator), Tamara Siler Jones, Kim Newman, Nancy Kilpatrick, and Barbara Roden. Description: We still gravitate to it. Is this merely by association, because so many great ghost stories were written then, or is there something inherent about the Gaslight Era which is inherently spooky? Discussion ranged over a lot of topics and rather than try to attribute comments I’ll paraphrase and collapse and any misrepresentation is mine. The staples of the Victorian Era seems to include atmosphere of the time, understatement, excitement of scientific discovery, and acceptance or obsession with death. It was a time of tremendous change the invention of radio, electricity, flight, formation of mass media, beginning of genre in writing. Most of our classics of the various genres come from this era (Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, Utopian literature). There was also a great disparity between the have and the have nots, light & dark. There was also a belief in the supernatural but they always expected there would be a scientific explanation for it eventually. There seemed to be a great deal to write about in the area between the extremes of the era.

Next, it was Ghosts and Revenants Down Under. Panelists: Robert Hood, Deborah Biancotti (moderator), Jack Dann, Kaaron Warren, and Garth Nix. Description: Does Australia have its own unique take on the ghost story? Is there something different about the dark fantasy from Down Under? A group of Australia’s best writers and editors discuss the Australian scene today. This panel in many ways was more a discussion of culture. Most writers write from their cultural heritage and Australia’s is pretty much a European/American mishmash. They can’t really use Aboriginal tales and stories because it’s a very touchy business to do so. The Aboriginal people feel that the Europeans have stolen their land but they will keep their own stories for themselves. Aboriginal authors can and do use their myths and stories in their writing (although only from their own particular family group). However, using the European legends and tales and mixing it with their own cultural identity and mixed with a dangerous landscape that is often a character in its own right make for some interesting twists and differences in tales between UK/US/Aus.

It was mentioned that Australia has 7 of the 9 most deadly poisonous snakes in the world. That most, if not all, of the wildlife (snakes and spiders were topics covered) are poisonous and differ only in how long you have to get to an antidote before you die. Then discussion turned to whether the surrounding Asian countries were having an impact and they are — and gaining as more and more people move in. They talked of movies/TV/etc where they receive a lot of Asian material with English subtitles long before they show up in the US or England.

Following the panel, we went to a reading of YA authors. The authors: Tiffany Trent, Sarah Beth Durst, Holly Black, and Cassandra Clare. I really love readings. You get to hear an author read a piece of their own work. For me, it seems to set a voice so that when I later read the work, I continue to hear it read in the author’s voice with their intonations and phrasing. Holly Black read a scene from Ironside. Cassandra Clare read from her second book City of Ashes (not yet out). Sarah Beth Durst read from Out of the Wild, a sequel to Into the Wild. Tiffany Trent read from her second book of the Hallowmere series (I forgot to write down the title, sorry). The problem with readings is now you have to wait for the story or book to be published.

Next a supper break. Walking in the brisk evening air to a restaurant and a discussion of the panels we’d seen. Everyone shared their impressions of the panels we’d seen so far and discussed books, authors, writing, and publishing in general.

I was a bit late to Joseph Bruchac, “A Voice from the Dark: Native American Ghost Stories of the Northeastern Woodlants”. He kept everyone spell bound telling stories of Toad Woman, Skeleton Man, Windingo, and about music. It was fun, interesting, informative, and the hour sped by so fast it seemed like seconds.

We’d planned to go to the Art Show Reception and some parties but ending up joining a group of people talking in the hallway (chairs and tables and comfy couches encouraged this behavior) and next thing we knew the conference center staff were blinking the lights to get people to clear out of the area — so it was back to the hotel to get this written up. Tomorrow is the last day of the convention.

We got a late start on the day, having forgotten to set the alarm and, what with running on so little sleep over the last few days — we slept in. Finally, we got ready to leave and met a nice woman in the hotel lobby who was trying to get a cab to the convention center; so we offered her a lift. Valerie is from Canada and down for World Fantasy. She speaks with a French accent which she apologized for but I assured her that her English was much better than my barely remembered high school French. We (my husband, Valerie, and I) had a great discussion on science fiction, fantasy, films and the subtitles thereof and accents and their variations. One of my favorite parts of conventions is meeting interesting people and having discussions with people from various areas who have read the same books and authors and comparing reactions, thoughts, and such. I think the Harry Potter phenomena was one of the first that really meant that you could talk with just about anyone and they would have also read the books and you could discuss the characters and the story lines and possible future plot lines with a common background. Prior to HP, it’s only at SF/F conventions that I could connect with people with similar reading experiences/backgrounds.

Since I forgot about the camera yesterday, here’ s a few shots. A peek into the door for the art show and a bit of the dealer’s room. It’s just about all books and the room is huge. If you love books as much as I do it’s a bit of heaven to be able to browse and better still to have a chance to buy so many books that are not staples at any local bookstore no matter how big their SF/F section.

At the convention center, we ran into some friends and ended up talking about books, publishing, authors and the convention program. (As an aside I found a lack of caffeine was starting to take its toll on my thought processes). So after much lively conversation, we formed a group and went in search of a late lunch. Lunch was found and partaken of amidst more lively conversation about books, authors, and strangely D&D (or perhaps not so strangely as I mentioned having read and reviewed Confession of a Part-Time Sorceress for SFRevu. Naturally, that led to sharing campaign stories and the role of story telling in the game, much to the bemusement of our sole non-gamer in the group who had a bit of hard time understanding the appeal.

Returning to the convention center, we managed to finally get to a program item. Psychic Detectives in Literature. Panelists: David Drake, Robert J. Sawyer, Howard Andrew Jones (moderator), Barbara Roden, and Kim Newman. The description of the panel was: “From Carnacki the Ghost-Finder to Kolchak the Night Stalker. Exploring the history of the supernatural sleuth story, and the strengths and weaknesses of this unique form.” The discussion of the panelists was far ranging with lots of specific authors mentioned but, being still without caffeine, I managed to get so concentrated on the panel I forgot to take notes. You know how you always think you remember ‘everything’ — well I don’t now that I sit here trying to write it all down. What I do remember is an interesting bit of discussion about the difference between a detective, investigating weird or psychic phenomena that might be ‘real’, and a psychic detective investigating a normal crime. Someone from the audience brought up the twist of a psychic detective (say a vamp) investigating a crime done by another psychic character. Which brought up a hmmm moment.

A change of pace here. Saratoga Springs is a racing area so there are these statues of horses throughout the main street and it turned out there was one outside the autographing session. So, while it’s not my favorite (I hope to get more pics of horses later) here’s the one in the hotel/convention center.

It was now getting late and there was a break in sessions as they prepared the room for the mass autographing session to be held from 8-11PM. We met up with friends and chatted and then — still being without a coffee or caffeine I could barely keep my eyes open so we ventured forth to search for the elusive coffee. Luckily, there was a Starbucks a few blocks away. Returning for the autographing session, we met up with the rest of the SFRevu staff to attempt to speak with as many people as possible. For those of you who have not been to World Fantasy, they usually have a mass autographing session. All the authors are seated at tables in rows in a huge room and then the conventioneers are let in. I always feel sorry for those new authors or less well known authors who end up sitting next to an extremely popular one with a huge line. So, those tend to be the authors I try to talk with first. We also try to give our business cards to as many authors, editors, and artists as we can (and when we ran out of cards we gave out SFRevu/Gumshoe bookmarks. Mostly we’re trying to let people know we exist, set up future interviews, say hi and catch up with authors/artists/editors we’ve met before, and take pictures for our archives and convention reports. We also get to talk to a lot of people in lines waiting to get books signed and chat about what they like about these authors/books/convention. It’s always a lot of fun and very tiring.

11PM and dragging, we managed to pop in for a few parties. This evening there were three on the fifth floor: Brotherhood Without Borders, Senses Five Press/Prime Books, and Shimmer Magazine. Actually there could have been more, or less, but the rooms, hallways, and elevator areas were all crowded with people deep in conversation and there seemed to be lots of drink — and there was even bottled water (for those of us who like to hydrate while talking). Everyone seemed to be having a fun time. However the hours were catching up to us so it was back to the hotel to write up this report, download our photos, and catch some shut eye to prepare for a full day tomorrow.

What a day! That deserves an exclamation point. After getting the zines on line last night we got about 4 hours sleep and it was up, shower, finish packing, pack the car, and off to Saratoga Springs — Saratoga is about 7 hours and 50 some odd minutes. And, that’s about what it took to get here. The scenery was gorgeous (camera was packed so no photos). There was actually some orange and red leaves — at home we’re in a sea of yellow with some tinged towards orange and very, very little red. And in truth a lot of leaves that haven’t changed yet.

Arriving we checked into our hotel (Hilton Garden Inn). It’s actually very nice with lots of amenities that I’m not used to seeing in a Hilton (or at least not in Hilton’s we’d been in previously). The room is comfortable and homey. We didn’t bother to unpack but just grabbed our coats and my purse and headed off to the conference center and registration to hopefully get to some panels before the dinner break.

We did manage to get to “Sleepy Hollow: The Beginnings of the Supernatural in American Literature”. We were about 30 minutes late but the panel was still excellent. Panel members were: Saladin Ahmed (who’d passed out a short bibliography — which I managed to pick up off a chair after the panel), Joseph Bruchac, Barbara Campbell, Lloyd Currey, and Mary Turzillo (moderator). From the time we quietly moved into the room the panel conversation ranged over Washington Irving’s works, especially “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. They discussed the layers of the story and how it has held up over the years. There was some comparing and contrasting with the works of Poe, Lovecraft, other writers of the Knickerbocker Group, and Cotton Mather. There was a wonderful give and take covering the American Folk tradition of tales and their origins. I’m really glad that we managed to catch this panel.

After a break for dinner with several friends we managed to get back in time for the Opening Ceremonies & Ice-Cream Social. Managed to talk to Tamara Siler Jones and Andi Ward for a while to catch up and talk conventions, life, whatever. We then met up with Drew & Kat Bittner who agreed that “The Fantasy Graphic Novel” panel sounded like something worth sitting in on. Panelists were: Mike Dringenberg, Alisa Kwitney Sheckley, Matthew Smith, Charles Vess, Andrew Wheeler (moderator), and Doselle Young. The conversation here was all over the spectrum but mostly focused on how the synergy of words and art becomes more than either separately — lots of comparison to jazz, mention of artists/writers/works they admire. I got so involved in listening I forgot to take notes. [NOTE: I added links only when I was fairly sure that the link I found was to the right person — when in doubt no link.]

We then dropped in to the Australia party, where we met up with some other people from the DC area and with Sam Tomanio (SFRevu’s short fiction columnist). We then moved on to the Zombies Need Brains Party — where there was some excellent chocolate confections and more good conversation.

Tomorrow we hope to remember to bring the camera (now that we’ve unpacked) and add pictures to tomorrow’s report.

Well, missed a couple of days and thought I’d make an effort to post tonight. Just put the fresh issues of SFRevu and Gumshoe Review up on line. So, the three of you who are probably actually going to read this post can get a peek before everyone else. I know there’s three of you out there because I put in a statistical thingy the day and surprise someone other than me actually read this blog.

Tomorrow very, very early — about 0 dark 30 in the morning, my husband and I will be packing up the car and heading out to the World Fantasy Convention which is being held in Saratoga Springs, NY. Hey, it’s getting a bit chilly here in Maryland and NY has got to be cooler. But temperature aside, it should be a lot of fun. If you’ve already signed up and will be there, please look for the folks with the SFRevu name tags and come and say hi. We love to meet our readers. And if one of you reads the blog — well golly that just makes it even better (Yes, I am the kind of person that says golly in conversation). I’ll be posting a daily update on the convention so if you’re interested come back and check in on what’s happening.